The two-day music and arts celebration known as the Clearwater Great Hudson River Revival, an annual event that has done more to promote environmental awareness in this region than any other entity or organization, offers such a plethora of first-class performers that it's almost unfair to focus on just one of them.

Spread out across Croton Point Park on several stages, artists and acts like NRBQ, Jill Sobule, Marshall Crenshaw, Patty Larkin, Mose Allison, Marcia Ball, Tony Trischka, Alvin Youngblood Hart and local legends Gandalf Murphy and the Slambovian Circus of Dreams will give festival goers an opportunity to experience the gamut of musical styles, while perennial favorites Jay Ungar and Molly Mason, leading their Catskill-flavored band Swingology, and Cajun stalwarts Steve Riley and the Mamou Playboys will entice hoofers to the dance tent. And as for mixing entertainment and doctrinal education, no one does it better than the Arms-of-the-Sea Theater.

Given all these worthy notables to write about, why smile upon Matt Turk? While many of the performers may support the ideals of Clearwater, few truly embody the group's raisons d'etre in thoughts and deeds like Turk does.

Instead of seeing the Clearwater festival, in the end, as another good-paying gig or politically-smart star turn or vehicle for promoting a new CD, Turk will be doing the honors on Saturday and Sunday afternoon in the Circle of Song, where performers collect a small congregation down by the river under the oak trees to learn songs and work out three-part harmonies. A quaint task accomplished away from the amplified sounds of the various stages, and yet an elemental part of the gathering in that songcraft, as part of struggle, can be an effective way of linking thought and deed.

"One of the songs I'll be teaching people to sing is something I wrote called 'Clearwater,' which is about Pete Seeger, the Hudson, big corporations and the environment," said Turk, a 33-year-old Hastings-on-Hudson resident. "I'll get everybody to harmonize on the chorus, and if between 50and 100 people show up to sing it I'll absolutely love it."

There is no question that Matt Turk could be one of those main stage acts at Clearwater, electric guitar in hand and playing songs from his new album. He does have a new album out, after all, titled What Gives, which features eleven songs of earnest pop-rock. Musically and lyrically it suggests David Bowie, Bruce Cockburn, Elliott Murphy, U2 and Duncan Sheik—in short, literate tunes with heart and muscle—and if the FM radio scene of yesteryear were still in existence he'd be a star.

For all his ambition and desire to have his music heard, though, Turk's abiding vibe is deeper than pop stardom and can be traced back to the influence of the ancient mariner of the sloop Clearwater himself, Pete Seeger.

In 1990 Turk completed his undergrad degree at NYU, majoring in history and religious studies, and was leading a jam band prototype called The Hour when he heard that Seeger was looking for a guitarist to help with his Street Singers. Turk signed up and for the next few years he was frequently at Seeger's side.

"You could say that Pete became my informal mentor," said Turk over onion rings and a chocolate milk shake at a Tarrytown diner last week. "We spent a lot of time together at parties and gigs, and he deeply impressed me. He was always approachable, and over time I heard lots of stories about music and history."

Turk had a short run at stardom in the early 1990s when his handsome features and winning smile brightened the Manhattan music scene, thus earning him and his group favorable media coverage. The group's members moved up to Saugerties, NY, and eventually disbanded in 1993, said Turk, leaving him to contemplate his next move.

He decided to take a break from the music business and instead took a job with God's Love—We Deliver, an organization that visits homebound AIDS sufferers with meals and services. Originally from Armonk, NY, Turk said his relatively affluent upbringing stood in stark contrast to some of the dwellings he brought food to, working from 6 a.m. into the evening most days. There were lots of confrontations on stairways with gun-toting drug dealers during his two years on the job, he said, and following a particularly violent dream he had one night, Turk resigned.

"A lot of pressure had been building up in me to get back out there again with my music," Turk said, and with a bunch of new songs that reflected his street-level experiences he began to gig everywhere. A comment Seeger had made to him about not having to just "play in saloons" gave Turk the impetus to bring his music to schools, senior centers, hospitals and homes for the mentally ill—"to audiences that don't get out there to hear much music, but deserve to as much as anybody else," he said. "And that's when I began to understand that community service was part of the folk mentality, too."

Engaging in and performing music from around the world as a way of introducing new cultures to audiences is also part of the folk tradition, and a few years ago Turk said he realized that Jewish folk music in the U. S. was being short-changed in this regard. After an assiduous period of study he began to get a lot of offers to perform Jewish folk music at various venues, and today he devotes a substantial part of his schedule keeping the music alive. "The fact is few people in this country were really playing Jewish music well enough for it to be enjoyed and appreciated, which is important to me because it's my heritage," Turk said. "People deserve to hear it at its best." His Saturday Circle of Song stint at Clearwater will feature Jewish folk material, and on Sunday he'll be delving into country blues.

After an unsatisfying distribution deal for his first album release, an eponymously titled 6-song EP cut in 1999, Turk is trying to attract attention to What Gives via word-of-mouth, a website and occasional gigs. Such is the plight of talented musical artists in the era of radio hegemony, thanks to Clear Channel et al, and dimming prospects from major record labels. Breaking through to even a small measure of commercial success is a daunting, if not impossible task. In the meantime, Turk busies himself with volunteer work at homeless shelters and food kitchens around the area. Ultimately, you know he'll be rewarded.

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